In many video games, enemies that don't die from one hit will blink a different colour when damaged. Most of the time, it tends to be white, although it may come in different variants, like red. This particular effect was chosen because it is achieved with a simple Palette Swap, a cheap operation for early video hardware.

The Flash of Pain will definitely be used on a boss that is Immune to Flinching, because it conveys that the player's attacks are actually landing damage. Especially important if the boss has a weak point on its body that must be hit in order to cause any damage (in which case usually just the weak part of the enemy will flash). Absence of this feature is nowadays considered Fake Difficulty. Sometimes the player also flashes in a different color when hit, when the game doesn't feature Mercy Invincibility.

Prolonged flashing may also signify that an enemy has Mercy Invincibility after you have attacked it, in which case you must wait for it to stop flashing before you can damage it again.

A related analogue occurs in first-person videogames, where - because the player is unable to see their own character - if the player takes a hit, the entire screen will flash momentarily to indicate damage.

In some cases when a boss Turns Red, it will look the same as the Flash Of Pain, except it will flash repeatedly on its own.

This trope follows the Rule of Perception, of course, as the Video Game character presumably doesn't see his opponent flashing white for a split second.

Examples:

The Binding of Isaac has enemies flashing deep red when hit while the player character has a subtle flash and Mercy Invincibility. The multicolouredChampion variants of regular enemies will flash in whatever colour contrasts their body the most.

Skeleton Krew had certain obstacles moving along a set path that displayed the same flash that enemies did when shot. However, those obstacles are really indestructible, and the flash is meaningless in their case.

In Marvel vs. Capcom, certain characters, like the Hulk, could take a shot without flinching, flashing red to show they did this. Hidden character Mecha-Zangief could take an infinite number of shots at the cost of being unable to block.

In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, the giants and Yami do. This is because giant characters, who fight alone, don't flinch when damaged (as compensation for not having a partner).

Strangely enough, enemies and bosses in Bug! only flash red in the Sega Saturn version. The PC version averts this.

All of the Contra games have the enemies flash when your shots are dealing damage, but in Contra: Hard Corps the bosses and minibosses go through an almost psychedelic pattern of colors while taking damage. It's especially unsettling with the larger bosses.

Enemies in Dynamite Headdy always flash white with the same little sound effect whenever they take damage without dying.

Bosses and some other things with multiple hitpoints seem to blink white in 2D Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Any fight with Robotnik changes his sprite, making him look directly at the player, mouth open screaming with a more frayed mustache upon being hit.

One of the few Mario examples, are the bosses in Super Mario Bros. 2 a.k.a Super Mario USA mainly due to it not originally being a Mario game. Enemies requiring multiple hits will flash in the dominant color of the character you're using.

In many of the Final Fantasy games, enemies will "flash" or otherwise demonstrate that they'd been attacked with a special effect. Even as early as the original Final Fantasy I for NES, the flashes would be color-coordinated to the type of weapon or spell used.

The Kooma Panda and Ursa Circus dream eaters in Kingdom Hearts 3D flash red when struck with weak attacks to indicate that they're Immune to Flinching. Oddly, the multitudes of other enemies with the same ability don't flash at all.

Mass Effect 2 has a variation: your squadmates' status bar icons flash red when they take health damage, rather than the squadmates themselves.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy